1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«This paper explores questions important to people who, in pursuit of feminist, antihomophobic, or other justice-seeking agendas, are concerned by restrictive legal notions of family. To do so, it studies the example of the Canadian province of Quebec, where lesbian parents have obtained recognition through legislative reforms.» (p. 1)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
Données documentaires diverses

Type de traitement des données :
Réflexion critique

3. Résumé

«Judges in Quebec have ordered lesbian mothers to share custody of children with their former partners. They have done so although family law characterizes the latter as legal strangers towards the children and although the parties had not deployed available legal means for extending parental status […] Once a legislature has enacted means for recognizing the families constructed by gay men and lesbians, the respective weights of formal and functional recognition of family substantial weight to decisions not to use such formal means. Otherwise, recognition of factually or functionally family relations outside legislatively created paths might subvert the political choices manifest in recognizing queer families. This conversation is an uncomfortable one. Indeed, the abiding erasure of gay and lesbian kinship in many places and the urgency of securing its basic recognition may make questions about excessive recognition seem counterintuitive. But the possibility that a child might have two legal mothers does not entail that two women active in a child’s life are always appropriately so characterized.» (p. 15-16)